Where Did Swear Words Come From? The Fascinating History Of Profanity

How did a word about your trousers become a swear word? And why is swearing more like barking than talking? And besides, where did swear words come from?

Swearing is a weird language all its own—full of hidden rules, secret codes and amazing stories.

In this exploration of profanity's past, I'll show you the craziest moments in the history of swearing, from ancient graffiti to the very first F-bomb. You'll even learn what science says about swearing and your brain!

But that's not all—you'll also meet an unfortunate guy called Roger who accidentally became a swear word. Poor Roger.

If you prefer watching videos to reading, hit play on the video version of this post at the top of this page. Otherwise, here's what you'll discover in this article:

The Gods Are Watching: Ancient Roman Profanity

When exploring where swear words came from, it usually comes down to this: when you break the rules, that's where you get the swear words. And if you're looking for rules to break, ancient Rome was absolutely the place!

You've probably seen the Gladiator films, but have you heard about the graffiti? Romans graffitied everything—stairwells, toilets, temples—which is how we know they were absolute potty-mouths. Those walls in Pompeii are filthier than Roger's surname!

The thing is, Roman swearing wasn't just rude—it was personal. They were obsessed with one question: “What does it mean to be a man?” The best kind of man you could be was a vir—that's where we get the word “virtue”.

(It's Latin, because Romans spoke Latin.) So naturally, angry Romans got creative with words that cancelled out a man's masculinity.

And then there were the gods. Romans loved dragging their entire pantheon into their oaths. Swearing by Jupiter or Hercules was serious business!

So to avoid getting struck by lightning, you could always steal a trick from the Greeks: swap out the god names for sound-alikes. (Americans do it too—”dad-gum-it,” anyone? Everyone knows what you really mean.)

Mind you, those Greeks would swear by anything—by the dog, by the goose.

The really interesting part is that even though none of those Vulgar Latin words ended up in English, we've been using some of the same insults for 2,000 years!

But what about vulgar words that did make it into English? For that, let's meet some hairy men with axes and absolutely no filter.

The Viking Invasion Of Your Vocabulary

The Vikings spoke Old Norse—a language so spicy, some of its words could get you killed. And English soaked up a shipload of it: die, hell, slaughter, rotten…

They also had some of the weirdest insults I've ever heard—like “May your toes rot and fall off in your shoes,” or my personal favourite: “Little dung beard!” Who argues with a burn like that?

They were big on something called flyting—basically rap battles minus the bassline! The more vulgar and outrageous, the better.

But the worst thing you could be called was “unmanly” or “cowardly”—these were the nastiest, reputation-ending words.

If someone called you that, you had to challenge them to a duel. It was the law, and if you backed down… well, that kind of proved their point. It was reputation warfare.

Could it get any worse? Actually, yes.

The Medieval Era: When Swearing Could Get You Out Of Jail

Back in medieval times, they loved their oaths so much that if you ended up in court, you could literally swear you were innocent—and if you said it just right, you could walk free.

Swearing in medieval England wasn't about being rude. It was about taking oaths and breaking them. People swore by sacred things: “By God's bones!” or “By God's nails!”

But you'd better be telling the truth, because saying those words was like invoking the crucifixion, and that could damn your soul.

That's why they called it “vain swearing,” and it was dangerous. Say you were gambling in the Middle Ages and lost—you might yell, “By God's bones!” and that was the worst thing you could say.

They could burn out your tongue if they felt like it! So in a court trial, swearing you were a good person actually counted for something and could get you off the hook.

Meanwhile, in France, people were swearing without technically swearing. They'd say things like sacré bleu (holy blue) to avoid saying Dieu (God).

And the Italians? Oh, they had a workaround too—swearing by the god of wine!

But if you really wanted to offend someone in the 16th century, you could just copy the grandmaster: Shakespeare. He used to make up his own swearing. “A pox on you!”

The Renaissance Goes Anatomical

Once in merry old England—yes, where I live—some favourite picnic spots had names that would make a sailor blush.

You remember the Renaissance, right? Everyone suddenly got obsessed with art and science. Less fear of the man in the sky, way more interest in bodies.

So naturally, swearing changed too. No more long Shakespearean curses—now it was all about one-word bombs.

Like “bloody”—that's a Renaissance word, along with a whole list of others pulled straight out of medical anatomy books! (We can't print those anymore.)

Even people's surnames and addresses joined in. It was like the Wild West.

A monk once scrawled a bad word on a manuscript he was reading—I think he was angry with someone? The naughty bit is just the letter D—it stands for “damned.” (Come on, he couldn't write the whole thing out—he was a monk!)

Later, someone found an even older F-word in a Scottish poem from the 1400s. It's half English, half Latin, and the swearing is all in code! Well, they thought they'd finally found the oldest F-bomb. They were wrong. Roger beat them to it. (Classic Roger.)

The Victorian Wash-Up: When All The Bad Words Vanished

And then one day, all the bad words vanished. Welcome to the Victorian Era—the age of euphemism. Everything was taboo.

Suddenly, roast chicken didn't have a breast—it had a “second wing.” I'm not kidding.

You couldn't even say “leg” or “trouser”! Instead, you had to call them “inexpressibles,” “indescribables,” “unmentionables,” “un-hint-ables”—the list goes on. “Continuations?” Yep. In polite company, even a piano had limbs, not legs. And kissing? Not a chance.

But in private, people were swearing basically the same way they are now. They just weren't writing it down.

The hilarious thing is that whilst polite people were busy clutching their pearls, the boys at Cambridge University were secretly keeping a record.

They made a full-on dictionary of curse words—and it was a runaway success. It's basically a guide to swearing in front of your dad without getting caught.

Naturally, someone responded with a guide to behaving properly! Balance restored.

Here's the truly insane part: in 1694, England passed the Profane Swearing Act, which was basically a tax on your mouth. The money all went to poor people, and if you were under 16 and couldn't pay up—you got whipped!

Swearing Like A Trooper: The Modern Era Begins

Know the 1930s film “Gone With the Wind”? They had to pay a huge fine—$5,000—for letting Clark Gable say “damn.” So scandalous.

But people still needed a way to let off steam, so they got creative: gosh, gee, golly, cripes… (If any of those offend you, brace yourself. I haven't even said “bejabbers” yet.)

So how did we finally get to swear for real, out loud, and on screen? Well, you can thank the troops in World War I and II. Soldiers weren't exactly whispering “golly” in the trenches, and when war reporters filed their stories, they didn't clean it up.

So swearing slipped into newspapers, and from there, it went viral. As for TV, I don't know who swore first, but in the 1970s, Philadelphia mayor Frank Rizzo made hilarious history with some choice words on live television.

Would a mayor get away with that now? No idea. But let's check in with your brain and a bit of freaky science!

Your Brain On Swearing: The Science Behind Profanity

This is nuts. In your brain, swearing doesn't just sound different—it comes from somewhere different.

You know how your brain has two parts—left and right? Well, most of your language lives up in the cerebral cortex—that's the thinking, logical part on the left. But swearing comes from the limbic system—the emotional part on the right.

So it isn't even tied to logic at all—it's tied to your survival instinct, your fight-or-flight response. That's why if you stub your toe and yell a bad word, you can't help it—it's primal! Your brain just fires it out, and adrenaline dulls the pain.

But that's not even the weirdest part. Some scientists think swearing is closer to a bark than a sentence. I kid you not—swearing is like barking. Like a dog. (If you're a cat person, maybe you're more of a raging hisser?)

There's a famous study done with a bucket of ice water where participants could hold their hand in longer if they were allowed to swear. And fake swears like “fudge” don't work, because now you're back in the left brain!

Swearing Around The World: A Global Perspective

So which modern language does swearing best? Let's choose a winner.

In Indonesia, it's really bad to call someone a dog. But if you say “very dog”—you've just gone full beast mode.

Meanwhile, German swearing's got a whole hybrid animal kingdom. Like… pig-dog?! Yikes.

In India, it's nuclear. One swear can insult your entire bloodline—your mother, your sister, and three generations of ancestors. So if someone says “MC” or “BC”—you'd better run.

And Afrikaans? Oh boy… They've got this one iconic insult that's so bad, it's become funny—practically a national treasure—and they will definitely try to make you say it.

As for the UAE, swearing is illegal, and even text-swearing with an emoji can get you fined or deported!

But the crown? That goes to Russia. Hands down. They invented a whole shadow language called “mat” that's so radioactive, the government banned it from TV, books, even concerts. But Russians will tell you: until you can curse with mat, you're just a tourist!

As for English—for all its chaos, it lets you say almost anything, which is probably how we ended up with Roger.

Meet Roger: The Oldest F-Bomb In English

In 2015, a historian was combing through court records from 1310 when he found it. A full name. Written three times.

“Roger…” well, let's just say his surname was the F-word we all know today.

I don't know what Roger did, but he was supposed to appear in court six times. Never showed. So they declared him an outlaw.

And that, my friend, is where we find the oldest known F-word in English! Poor Roger—he probably never imagined his name would go down in linguistic history for all the wrong reasons.

Where Did Swear Words Come From? FAQ

Where Did Swear Words Come From? The Final Answer

So where did swear words come from? The answer is everywhere and nowhere all at once. They emerged from our deepest human needs: to rebel, express pain, insult our enemies and bond with our tribes.

Swear words have evolved alongside us, reflecting our fears, our values, and our endless creativity with language.

They've survived empires, outlasted kings, and adapted to every new medium we've invented. They're written into our brains differently than other words, fired from our emotional centres rather than our logical ones.

And perhaps most remarkably, they continue to evolve. New swear words are born, old ones lose their sting, and somewhere out there, another Roger is probably creating tomorrow's profanity without even knowing it.

Whether we love them or hate them, swear words are here to stay—a testament to the raw, unfiltered, beautifully messy nature of human expression.

So the next time someone asks where swear words came from, you can tell them: they came from us, in all our flawed, passionate, wonderfully profane humanity.

Olly Richards

Creator of the StoryLearning® Method

Olly Richards is a renowned polyglot and language learning expert with over 15 years of experience teaching millions through his innovative StoryLearning® method. He is the creator of StoryLearning, one of the world's largest language learning blogs with 500,000+ monthly readers.

Olly has authored 30+ language learning books and courses, including the bestselling "Short Stories" series published by Teach Yourself.

When not developing new teaching methods, Richards practices what he preaches—he speaks 8 languages fluently and continues learning new ones through his own methodology.